Michelle, you and your husband want everyone to add to their own personal deficit and give to the charity of your choosing, The Red Cross. In your bad acting in this video, you say, “But we can all do something. We can help the American Red Cross as it delivers the food, water and medicine that can save lives….” I understand this to mean that you are giving and I should join you. What a shock to find out that you did not give. This ad was recorded on January 16.

On that same day, January 16, President Obama asked former Presidents Bush and Clinton to form the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and to spear head the relief funding for Haiti.

To my complete shock, President Obama did not take advantage of the moment to hand an envelope to the Presidents with the Obama donation to begin the fund. Hell, they could have done the complete stunt with another envelope with the girls allowance in it. But, no. NO donations from the Obamas.

It wasn’t until January 20 that the Obama’s finally decided to donate to a cause that they had been ordering us to donate to.

“The President and First Lady have been inspired by the way that millions of Americans have responded with tremendous generosity to the Haiti crisis – even in these tough economic times,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest says, “So, today, they sent their own check for $15,000 to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund to support the ongoing relief efforts in that country.”

This is incomprehensible that these extremely wealthy people could beg, order and guilt the American public into donating, but were not in the least bit interested in donating themselves. Wouldn’t it be nice if the American public inspired the Obama’s more often, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

In the chart above, you can see their income and their charitable giving. In 2008, the campaign year, the Obama’s had an adjusted gross income of $2,656,902. The Obamas paid $855,323 in federal income tax. And they donated $172,050 – or about 6.5% of their adjusted gross income.

No one will ever accuse the Obama’s of being generous. If they do make that error, the facts and figures will never bear it out.

I know that Barack Obama attended Punahou School for eight years on scholarship. I know that he has never given to Punahou to help fund the scholarship program that put him where he is today. I’ve never seen a line item of a donation to Occidental College, Columbia University or Harvard University — and he received fine scholarships there, too. I guess he thinks others owe it to him and he doesn’t owe back.

The only generosity that President Obama has is with our tax dollars – those he is willing to throw in the air. But, he own, he’s pretty greedy with.

How delightful! President Obama went to Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia to announce his desire to throw a lot more money at education. (Gosh, how I wished money translated to achievement…)

The President and Secretary of Education Duncan spent about 20 minutes taking questions from the children. (Since the press were not allowed – closed door transparency and all – we’ll have to believe it is true.)

Then, he stepped up to his big old podium, with his “I’m the President” sign and his teleprompter, to make a very short speech about throwing more money at education. He really needed a podium and teleprompter for this? In fact, why did he need to disrupt a school day to make this speech? Can we say PROPS? He made the school and the children props.

Since Mr. Obama has not had a public school education, but went to Punahou School on scholarship, he probably doesn’t realize what the differences are between private and public school, nor does he realize that money is not the answer.

By the way, Mr President, did you forget to donate to Punahou again this year? You know, donations for the scholarship program that launched you to where you are today. Once again, your name is missing from the donor rolls. Giving away your own money is a tough one for you – other peoples’, not so much!

An aerial view of the damaged National Cathedral in Haiti from a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft Jan. 14. Aerial images are providing U.S. military planners valuable situation awareness as they coordinate U.S. military support to the Haiti relief effort.

(Release by U.S. Southern Command)

The National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Before the Earthquake – it towered over the city

Gone now, and will it the Archbishop who was killed in the collapse

The tragedy that is the earthquake in Haiti will be will us for a long time. It is doubtful that much in this country is structurally sound, and the death toll and mass graves will continue to grow. Government is a fragile and propped up entity, consuming millions of dollars in aid and having little to show for it in this country of 10 million people.

The capitol, Port-au-Prince, is all but destroyed. The Presidential Palace, the Parliament Building, the National Cathedral, the UN Mission, the US Embassy, the missionary hospitals, schools and compounds, the prison – symbols of the societal structure are all gone. There is little, if any housing left in tact. There is no resource for food and water, since most Haitians in Port-au-Prince were dependent upon the structures that are gone.

Unknown is the devestation to the outlying areas of the majority of the country. Hopefully, the farm land areas have fared better and will be able to feed themselves.

This will be a money and resource pit for some time to come. Looting and gangland rivalries will create a dangerous atmosphere. The prisoners who escaped during the destruction of the the facility are free to wreak havoc. There is no law and order and no reports of a police presence. I hope that it does not fall to the US military and endanger our fine young people. Distribution of food and water is a difficult and dangerous thing.

Americans, once again, will dump money to make themselves feel generous. These are the same people that won’t walk next door and check on the elderly lady to be sure she is all right after a snow storm. Of course, our tax payer dollars are providing untold millions to the island nation, in addition to the cost of the military and the equipment, ships and planes they are bringing to the situation. We will, once again, give more than our share.

For those of you who are determined to give your money to Haiti, PLEASE – check the charity out on the Charity Watch sites – does the money go to administrative costs (like the American Red Cross), does the money go to the general fund of the charity for them to determine the use (like the American Red Cross), does the money actually go to the people of Haiti?

And, if you are so charitable, might I remind you that there are Americans in need as well. You might want to help at home, too.

Body scanners are the latest in a long line of stupidity called “airport screening.” The latest rounds of indignity and idiocy have been triggered by a Christmas attempt by a terrorist to blow up a plane coming from Denmark.

Led by the Idiot in Chief and his minions, TSA has taken an unfair hit – YES, I am defending the TSA. Why? Because they had NO PART in screening passengers on a flight from Amsterdam – the Netherlands is responsible for screening of passengers in their airports. If there is any failure, it is the willingness of the US government to put the safety of US bound flights in the hands of other governments and many who support terrorism.

The latest nonsense is the FULL BODY SCAN. While it is being touted as the ultimate prize in stopping terrorism, there are more than a few problems with them.

COST – The scanners cost $150,000 each, plus installation and training. Currently, the US has 40 acanners and plans to up than to 150 by years end. the US has over 13,000 airports.

ACCESSIBILTY – How will these be effectively placed and used in the airports. Most major airports have multiple screening lines

EFFICIENCY – Not one credible expert has said that a full body scan would have caught the explosives sewn into the underwear. Just as removing shoes would not have caught Richard Reid’s shoe bomb, it is doubtful that a body scanner would have caught the underwear bomber.

MAINTENANCE – Will the maintenance be kept current and what will happen to the security lines when they are not working.

PROFESSIONALISM – Will the people running the scanners also be running uploads to You Tube and Twitter of the famous and not so famous?

PRIVACY – One article I read said “they also reveal a person’s silhouette and the outlines of underwear” – No, they see through your clothes – all of your clothes. They will show the sanitary pads and the incontinence diapers. And when those register, will we be put through a strip search? Will there be any limits to the indignities we will be expected to endure?

HEALTH RISKS – What are the health risks for people being exposed to low level radiation? I have heard ‘it is no more dangerous than going to the dentist.’ But, for frequent business fliers, this would exceed the acceptable level of radiation in no time. Dentists won’t do x-rays several times a week, month after month either.

RISKS FOR CHILDREN – Are we on the edge of the pedophilia laws? What are the radiation risks for babies and toddlers?

SCREENING OF AIRPORT EMPLOYEES – Are the people who work at the airport going to be subjected to this? How about the maintenance, food and cleaning people with access to the airplanes? The flight crews? The ground crews?

So, this “fix” may be nothing more than a costly joke.

The additional foolish things that have been put into the works:

During flight, the aircraft operator must ensure that the following procedures are followed:

Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.

Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.

While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.

Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.

So…. no information, no blankets or pillows (what time do the flight attendants need to start taking these away from passengers to make the one hour deadline?), no personal belongings – that means no book, no lap top, no knitting, no magazines – just sit there and fume.

Even more interesting is the directive for the airlines to do a physical pat down of all passengers before boarding and to reinspect the carry on luggage.

If anyone actually thinks this will make anyone safer, I would like to live in the la-la land they do. It will make traveling more difficult, more stressful and more expensive. It is evident that Obama thinks he can make up stupid rules and snap his fingers and it will be so.

Al Qaeda has to be laughing at us.

Thoughts?

Update – Did you know that any photo software can reverse these scans and get a perfect nude picture? No privacy concerns there!

The Christmas Surprise Bomber is a looming reminder of the patience, persistence and constant effort of the the terrorists to kill Americans – any Americans, any where, any time.

It took the President a long time to address the incident, then, done so poorly, he continues to rush to the television cameras to try to get it right. He has trouble with sounding sincere and has a heck of a time with the facts.

Regardless of the bombing attempt on his watch, Obama seems unable to see past his pathological hatred of anything Bush did, to do what is right for the country. Closing GITMO is unquestionably one of the biggest failures in his agenda.

We have built a state of the art prison facility in Guantanamo Bay. It is isolated and controlled and efficient. It is guarded by highly trained members of our military. It secures our captured terrorists. It provides a place for information gathering. And, despite attempts to lie about it, there has not been an incident of abuse to anyone there. Yet, the Obama mantra is that it is a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda… really? Was GITMO there when Al Qaeda stole four airliners and crashed them into the Pentagon, a field in Pennsylvania and the twin World Trade Towers? Obviously, they do not need GITMO for motivation.

Part of Obama’s attempt to close GITMO is to ‘relocate’ the prisoners. As President Bush did before him, Obama is sending prisoners to other countries. President Bush saw the folly in this when those relocated ended up ‘escaping’ or ‘being paroled’, yet today, Obama is planning to return a large number to Yemen where previous prisoners returned are running Al Qaeda in Yemen – our newest war front.

It is evident that Obama’s concern is not for the safety and security of America. His concern is for ripping out the upholstery of American society and replacing it with a modern version of his vision of what America should be. These terrorists are just an inconvenience to him. And, that is a dangerous position to put America in.

A Blue Moon happens ever two and a half years – two full moons in one month… I remember how disappointed I was when, many years ago, I found out it was such a short period of time. This year, we have a Blue Moon New Years Eve. Hopefully, you will be able to see it – it’s snowing here, so if it stops it will be quite brilliant with the reflection off of the snow!